


Broken

by rcrofoot



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2014-01-01
Packaged: 2018-01-07 02:06:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rcrofoot/pseuds/rcrofoot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I have been told by some people who have already read it that if I try to summarize it, it ruins the piece. Sorry! All I can say is that James finds himself without his wife, and has a hard time dealing with life afterward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken

All this time, all the fighting, had been worth it.  
They’d taken his wife, all those years ago. James could still envision it, walking through the front door after a long day of work to see a small, green-tinted man dressed in the blues of the sky. Perhaps “man” is the wrong word. His features seemed strangely angled, his green eyes similar to a cat’s, and from under his mop of red hair, pointed ears emerged. In his short arms, lay James’ wife.  
James only had just enough time to take in the scene before the man dropped the unconscious Ava to the floor with a thud and leapt through the window to the back garden. By the time James made it out back, he was gone. The ground at the foot of the back stairs was blanketed in four-leaf clovers.  
Even he questioned his own sanity at first, thinking he had turned an ordinary man into something he wasn’t. He called an ambulance, then the police, begging them to save his precious Ava. They looked everywhere; there was no trace of the pointy-eared man. The medics took Ava to the hospital, where she remained unconscious. The doctors told him she had suffered a stroke, and it was unlikely that she’d wake up.  
But he knew better. One look at her and he knew; this was not the woman he had married. She had been hollowed out, emptied. This shell of a person on the bed in front of him was not his wife. Ava had been lively, beautiful, and necessary in his life. The woman he saw now was all but dead, her face tired and sagging, someone he might walk by everyday and not even notice.  
A month or two of research and James knew the truth: Ava’s soul had been taken by Them, the Fey, the Fair Folk. Faeries. He needed to get it back if she was ever going to get better. A number of contact attempts had left him with scars up and down his arms.  
Six months in and the unthinkable happened. Ava died. He hadn’t been there when it happened, but he figured it was natural. A body can only live so long without a soul. Until They started to take an interest in him, hinting that They had her. They tortured him, made him see his beloved Ava, only to make her disappear when he reached the cliff’s edge, or the top floor of their apartment, or the end of the ocean. Keep going and you can see her again, hold her again, They would whisper. Just a few more steps and she’s yours again. He was always able to resist them until his family convinced him to go to their vacation home, the place he had first met Ava, the place he had proposed to her. They made her appear, whispered to him, led him to the edge of the lake. The water was the blue of Ava’s eyes; if she was anywhere, it would be here. Just a few more steps, then you can be a family again.  
After his cousins fished him out of the lake, his family put him here, claiming it was the best place for him. White walls, white ceiling, and him in a white coat. Still, They plagued him. A small, white-haired faerie with blue tinted skin would sit in the corner, watching him, until his attendant came in. Then she would sneak up behind the poor woman and stab her in the back of the head. He would cry out, only to realize the attendant hadn’t even flinched. The woman would scribble something on her clipboard, then walk out, leaving him alone with the now hysterical faerie.  
But now, Ava stood before him, her brown hair billowing in an unfelt breeze. The woman that stood before him now was different than the mirages They’d been throwing at him. She even seemed more vivacious than she had been when they’d first met. Or perhaps his memory had just been fading. Aside from her long, green gown, she was exactly as he remembered. His Ava. He scanned her face, basking in the familiarity of it all, until he reached her ears. He nearly cried out when he spotted two points sticking out from under her hair.  
“My Love.” He started at the sound of her voice. It was the first time any of the images had spoken to him. “It’s really me. Don’t you remember your Ava?”  
He sat there, shaking, willing it to be her. He shook his head and closed his eyes, not wanting to be taken in again. Then, he felt her soft hand on his cheek, turning into it without realazing.  
“Do you remember the first time we kissed? You had driven me all the way back to college. After hours of driving, we were just sitting on a bench talking about life. And you couldn’t take it anymore; you scooped me into your lap and kissed me.” It had been the first of many best days of his life.  
“Or when you asked me to marry you? You knew I loved photography, so you took me on a photo shoot of the lake. You paddled us out to the middle so I could get a close-up of the lilies. Then, you pointed the camera at my face and asked me to marry you, taking the picture as soon as you said it so you could keep the look on my face forever.” He still carried the picture with him.  
He opened his eyes, but Ava wasn’t looking at him anymore. She was looking down, and a little to her right, as she always did when she was lost in thought.  
“Or our wedding day,” she smiled, and it nearly broke him to see her face light up again. “I’ll never forget the look on your face as I appeared at the end of the aisle. I’ve never been so happy to make someone cry.”  
He met her eyes, their brilliant blue. “Ava,” he whispered, afraid his voice would blow her away again.  
“It’s me,” she knelt down beside him. “Just happier and… better. They changed me. They can change you, too, if you’ll let them.  
Warning bells sounded in his head, but he brushed them aside.  
“You just have to let go. Come with me and we can be together again. You can feel whole again. I know how broken you’ve felt.” Her face reflected genuine concern as she stood and reached out to him. “Just take my hand, and we can be a family again.”  
Looking into her warm, blue eyes, James couldn’t refuse. He grasped her outstretched hand and let her help him up.  
Her smile was half warm and half feral as she whispered, “We’re one again.”

When the attendant came in a half hour later, his body was already cold.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story I am hoping to submit to a competition, so please tell me what you think!


End file.
